When the record companies commenced proceedings in the Federal Magistrates Court in the Swiftel case, I was a little confused—it was no Hendy Petroleum, N & J Nominees, or Fraserside Holdings. When the case was transferred to the Federal Court, Kim Weatherall wrote:
Won’t those Federal Court judges be pleased that this interesting copyright case has made it’s [sic—tsk, tsk] way to the ‘right court’…
Turns out, that at least one Federal Court judge was pleased. In Y v Australian Postal Corporation [2005] FCA 1396 at [24], Finkelstein J wrote:
For example, on occasions the Federal Magistrates Court refuses to transfer cases that quite clearly should be heard in the Federal Court. Warner Music Australia Pty Ltd v Swiftel Communications Pty Ltd [2005] FMCA 627 is an example.
This attitude is not really surprising, though. When the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property conducted a review into whether the Federal Magistrates Court’s IP jurisdiction should be extended, the Federal Court (per Heerey and Lindgren JJ) made a submission (20 kB PDF), which, quite robustly, suggests that the Federal Magistrates Court should stay well away from IP matters.
